TEHRAN: Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards inaugurated a new naval base yesterday to reinforce Tehran’s authority over three Gulf islands claimed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iranian state TV reported.
The base near the Iranian mainland’s southern port of Bandar-e Lengeh, some 1,100 kilometers south of Tehran is the Guards’ fifth in the Gulf.
The Guards’ navy chief Gen Ali Fadavi said missile and marine units have been deployed there.
It lies north of the Iranian-controlled islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb that dominate the approach to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
The Revolutionary Guard and the US Navy both patrol the narrow waterway, which Iran had threatened to choke off in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions over its suspect nuclear programme. Iran took control of the Arabian Gulf islands in 1971, after British forces left the region. Since 1992, the UAE has repeatedly claimed the islands and last month at the UN General Assembly, it said Iran’s “occupation” violates international law.
In April, a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the islands inflamed the dispute over the territories and prompted an outcry by UAE and its Arab allies.
Tehran later vowed to develop the islands through tourism and other industries, though little has been reported on that since the visit. During the inauguration of the base, Guards chief Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari expressed the hope that new base could support economic development of
the islands.
Tehran says the islands have been part of states that existed on the Iranian mainland from antiquity until the British occupied them in the early 20th century.
The UAE insists they belonged to the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah until Iran captured them by force days before the UAE statehood
in 1971.
Also yesterday, Iranian newspapers reported that the country has produced a domestically-made drone capable of hovering in midair.
AP
